Tags or labels which are severable or separable sequentially from an elongated continuous supply or series of such tags, such as demand tags, are used extensively in a variety of environments, including the transportation industry. Such tags frequently are used as baggage tags which are dispensed on demand, one at a time, by severing a tag from the continuous series, as with a suitable cutting blade. All of that is conventional.
Frequently demand tags are self-adhering and comprise a tag provided with self-adhering pressure sensitive adhesive and a backing sheet. The backing sheet is eventually fully or partially removed to expose the adhesive area, and the tag itself is then affixed to the object to which it is intended to be attached, such as to a piece of luggage. It will be appreciated that when a self-adhering tag is cut from a continuous supply, typically the blade or knife will cut through the adhesive, and will eventually become gummed up and/or foul the equipment with which the blade is associated.
Attempts have been made to avoid that problem. For example, continuous tag stock defining transverse or patterned zones free of adhesive have been suggested so that when a transverse cut is made, the cut is through a zone where adhesive is not present. Of course, this presents a number of drawbacks including material waste, leaving ends on tags without adhesive which can cause the edges to curl and interfere with the proper functioning of the tag, and difficulties in providing the necessary pattern. Further, even if patterning is provided, the adhesive may tend to extrude into the zone in which transverse cutting is to occur.
Another approach has been to apply self-adhering labels to a backing sheet in a longitudinally spaced apart array to provide a series of demand tags. Thus the space between the labels or tags, sometimes referred to as the matrix, will be adhesive-free and that zone can be cut through without having a knife or blade come into contact with adhesive. It also exposes free edges to separation from the backing sheet often causing equipment jams and failures. That process is also slower and more costly than is desireable.
Thus there remains a need for providing demand tags which are inexpensive and which insure that transverse cuts which are intended to separate a demand tag from a continuous series or supply of such tags do not engage adhesive which will tend to foul blades or the equipment for utilizing and dispensing such tags.